Given the size and power of the storm, much of the damage from the surge was inevitable. But perhaps not all. Some of the damage along low-lying coastal areas was the result of years of poor land-use decisions and the more immediate neglect of emergency preparations as Sandy gathered force, according to experts and a review of government data and independent studies.

Authorities in New York and New Jersey simply allowed heavy development of at-risk coastal areas to continue largely unabated in recent decades, even as the potential for a massive storm surge in the region became increasingly clear.

In the end, a pell-mell, decades-long rush to throw up housing and businesses along fragile and vulnerable coastlines trumped commonsense concerns about the wisdom of placing hundreds of thousands of closely huddled people in the path of potential cataclysms.

Of course, if local governments had shown some foresight and enforced stricter land use restrictions and building codes everyone would have spent the last few decades bitching and moaning about how big gub'ment was ruining their lives.

Of course, if local governments had shown some foresight and enforced stricter land use restrictions and building codes everyone would have spent the last few decades bitching and moaning about how big gub'ment was ruining their lives.

Or, we could inform them of the dangers, let them take personal responsibility for it. You know that even knowing the problems, these neighborhoods are going to be rebuilt exactly where they were .... No one seems to learn lessons.